Excelsior Club In Foreclosure

The Excelsior Club isn’t just closed for renovations as we reported last month. It seems to be closed permanently.

The Charlotte Observer reported that State Rep. Carla Cunningham, who inherited the club from her late husband, foreclosed last week on James Ferguson, a prominent civil rights attorney who bought the club from Pete Cunningham in 2006.

The club closed its doors last June. It’s been a fixture in the black community since 1944. It is one of the last vestiges of Charlotte’s rich black history.

Ferguson, affectionately known as Fergie, said told the Observer. “We would like to see the club stay open.”

It seems unlikely that it will re-open or even survive.

Cunningham told the Observer “…When you’re making business decisions you have to do what’s in the best interests not only of the community, but of your family.”

That doesn’t sound to good for the future of the club that has fallen into disrepair, and although it holds nostalgic value, it’s not the happening spot that it used to be.